“So where are you going to watch the final?”

“In the stadium.”

It’s 2 July 2000 at 17.30 and we are in Utrecht. In two and a half hours France and Italy will play each other in Rotterdam to decide who will win the 2000 European Football Championship.

“What do you mean? You got tickets?”

“Nope, but we’ll get them on the train.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Holland lost, so most of their fans will want to sell their tickets.”

Good point. I decided to join. So we set a budget of 400 guilders each for the tickets that have a f 290 face value. Within minutes of boarding the train we were negotiating and after 45 minutes we struck a deal at 375 guilders each. Only minutes before kick-off we entered the terrace of De Kuip’s W section on the long side 5 metres off the pitch. They had a horn section from the Rotterdam Philharmonic playing brilliant arrangements of the wto national hymns and everyone was ready for an exciting night of football. Italy finally dropped the defensive approach, scored the first goal and should have been winning 3-0 by the time France sadly equalized in injury time.

But things got worse: in the 103rd minute France scored the only golden goal in a major men’s final ever.

Although we were saddened by the result, the evening was a great one and well worth the money and effort involved.